The networked computing environment (e.g., cloud computing environment) is an enhancement to the predecessor grid environment, whereby multiple grids and other computation resources may be further enhanced by one or more additional abstraction layers (e.g., a cloud layer), thus making disparate devices appear to an end-consumer as a single pool of seamless resources. These resources may include such things as physical or logical computing engines, servers and devices, device memory, and storage devices, among others.
Cloud computing environments generally provide “web-based processing,” whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices over the Internet (e.g., on-demand). Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online that are accessed from another Web service or software like a Web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers. Challenges may exist, however, in providing methods to determine whether and/or when to release computing infrastructure components from a cloud environment (e.g., a dynamic cloud environment).